Robi’s r-ventures 2.0 invests more than two crore taka on digital start-ups

Dhaka, Dec 26, 2019: Robi’s flagship digital entrepreneurship platform, r-ventures 2.0 has recently concluded with the holding of the Investment Day programme. The programme was held on the 24th of December at Bashundhara International Convention City.

Following a thorough screening process, a total of 12 digital startups took part in the investment day. At the end of the investment day, the digital start-ups walked away with more than two crore taka worth investment, making r-ventures 2.0 the biggest investment platform for the digital startups of the country. Taking lead from Robi, The Angels Network and IDLC also made the investment in the digital start-ups at the investment day.

On the other hand, Startup Bangladesh, the National Entrepreneurship platform under the ICT Division provided a total of 73 lakhs taka as grants to the start-ups.

Sigmind received a maximum investment of 1 crore 15 lakhs taka from the investors of r-ventures. The startup provides artificial intelligence services. Other startups participating are delivering sanitary products to women through Velvet Box’s subscriptions, dgTong- providing digital tea stalls without cash through vending machines, Uparjon--a platform for connecting freelancers and clients, AALO-- a marketing platform who provides screens in public buses to sell ads and Fuelbee- online fuel delivering service.

On the other hand, the online tutoring platform is EduMate, home-based food delivery to the consumer--Cookants, on demand maid/household service--Hello Task, Daktar Bondhu-- telemedicine services, Alo—AI powered glass to help visually impaired people, Khamar-e-- IoT devices for cattle management.

Attending the programme as a chief guest, State Minister for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) division Zunaid Ahmed Palak, MP, handed over the investment money to the entrepreneurs. President of TiE Dhaka Rubaba Dowla and Bank Asia President and Managing Director Md. Arfan Ali were present as guest in the event.

Managing Director and CEO of Robi Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Robi's Chief Digital Services Officer Shihab Ahmad, Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer Shahed Ala, r-venture 2.0 officials, investors and media personnel were also present.

Among the investors in r-ventures 2.0 were Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Managing Director and CEO of Robi, Sonia Bashir Kabir, President of The Angels Network, Arif Khan, CEO and Managing Director of IDLC Finance Limited and Tina F. Jabeen, Investment Advisor of Startup Bangladesh's ICT Division. Robi organized the first phase of r-ventures in 2017 with a view to building digital entrepreneurship among its employees. In view of that success, the operator launched r-ventures 2.0 project in July this year to open the way for everyone to become a digital entrepreneur.

At the beginning of the competition, the interested people or groups submitted their business ideas by visiting the website. In just 20 days, 2,226 ideas were submitted. The initial 150 ideas were then selected from the collected ideas. From this step, 50 ideas were selected and training was organized for the entrepreneurs concerned.